Cape Town - Metrorail has lost 101 carriages due to vandalism since October 2015 worth R312 million having a devastating effect on its ability to render a reliable commuter service, the Western Cape legislature's standing committee on transport and public works heard.
Metrorail was operating with 60% of its fleet with punctuality dropping by more than 20% and cancellations soaring, the committee was told.
Regional Manager Richard Walker said on-board vandalism had soared, with 60 to 70 carriages per month ending up back in workshops having been stripped of copper wiring.
He said the Western Cape required a fleet of 84 appropriately configured train-sets to service its existing timetable. The diminished fleet also operates with fewer than required carriages i.e. "short trains". "The rate of loss of carriages outstrips the rate of return," the operator said.
Additionally, Metrorail had ordered 30km of cabling to keep up with the rate of loss.
"It is costly and unsustainable," Walker said. He appealed to the relevant authorities to clamp down on so called "bucket shops" – illegal scrap dealers who continue to trade, providing cash for copper. "Allowing this practice to continue affects Metrorail’s train service to its high density corridor most."
The commuter operator is spending R68 million on a wall/fence along its busiest lines in a bid to prevent crime.
R68m will be spent on the wall/fence barrier. Picture: Supplied/Metrorail
"The level of gang-infestation and crime in the triangle Langa-Nyanga-Netreg is so pervasive that we have declared it a priority – our railway line will be walled in both sides to prevent ingress onto the operating tunnel," Walker said. "The first phase between Nyanga and Lansdowne bridge was completed at a cost of R5m and the result was most encouraging."
R5m has already been spent on fencing. Picture: Supplied/Metrorail
Walker said the funding for this project came from a re-allocation of existing funding and that no additional funding was available: "It simply means that we have had to re-prioritise to meet this need and another project will have to be delayed further."
Crime prevention was not Metrorail's, nor its principal, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa's (Prasa) primary function. "We operate trains, we cannot be held solely responsible for reigning in unbridled crime spilling onto our network.
"Do your jobs and we'll do ours – let us work together," Walker pleaded with the committee.
It would take Metrorail and Prasa two years to recover service levels. The approach would focus "inter alia on accelerating the recovery of train-sets and related infra-structure and operational safety in phases".
"The acceleration of the recovery process is concomitant with the modernisation project of recapitalising old and obsolete assets," Metrorail said.
Walker appealed to all tiers of government, organised business, labour and civil society structures to focus on the socio-economic issues impacting severely on Metrorail’s ability to operate trains safely.
"We as a rail operator cannot continue to accommodate the failure of society to deal with issues such as housing, electricity, employment, vagrancy and crime – we need to render a safe, reliable and punctual rail service to 48% of public transport users in the province," Walker said.
Metrorail has identified several hotspots along its lines. Graphic: Supplied/Metrorail
Walker confirmed the long-standing level crossing protection issue in the south is drawing to a close.
"As promised the protection of the level crossings will be completed by the end of September this year with full restoration of the signalling system due for completion in January 2018. Metrorail’s automated signalling and associated protection of level crossings between Retreat and Simon’s Town was completely destroyed by a heavy truck in January this year," the operator said.